Economy curbing drunken driving?

There may be one upside to the country’s economic troubles – less drunken driving.

Self-reported episodes of alcohol-impaired driving among U.S. adults decreased 30 percent from 2006 to 2010, as demonstrated by new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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Of those surveyed, 1.8 percent said they were involved in at least one instance of driving under the influence, for a total of about 112 million incidents alcohol-impaired driving in 2010, down from 161 million episodes in 2006.

“Reasons for the decline in alcohol-impaired driving are not well understood, but possible factors include less discretionary driving as a result of the current economic downturn … and possible changes in drinking location to places where driving is not required such as at home,” the center said in the conclusion of its survey, citing two sources of outside research.

According to the poll, in 2010, nearly one in 50 of those polled (1.8 percent) admitted to at least one episode of alcohol-impaired driving in the past 30 days. Sixty percent of these individuals said they had driven under the influence of alcohol just once in the last 30 days, but some said they did this daily.

Men have a much worse track record than women, accounting for 81 percent of last year’s alcohol-impaired driving incidents. Young men aged 21-34 years, who make up 11 percent of the U.S. adult population, were responsible for 32 percent of the 2010 episodes.

Binge drinking was strongly associated with driving under the influence, with 85 percent of all incidents coming from people who also admitted to binge drinking.

The statistics, released Tuesday, were based on a telephone survey among people 18 years and older.